A Low-Latency, Energy-Efficient L1 Cache Based on a Self-Timed Pipeline

Trudeau, Louis-Charles; Gagnon, Ghyslain; Gagnon, François; Thibeault, Claude; Awad, Thomas; Morrissey, Doug

doi:10.1109/async.2015.11

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…The AnARM was fabricated with a 28 nm technology, as reported in [9]. It first served as a proof of concept to be compared with other general-purpose processors and provided a context for a novel self-timed cache architecture [10], a new model for dynamic voltage scaling [11], and original test methods [12]. We revisit the original Octasic self-timed design style using circuits and methods coming from the asynchronous literature, with the objective of lowering the barrier with timing-driven EDA flows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing KeyRing self‐timed microarchitecture and timing‐driven design flow

Fiorentino

Thibeault

Savaria

2021

IET Computers & Digital Tech

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A self-timed microarchitecture called KeyRing is presented, and a method for implementing KeyRing circuits compatible with a timing-driven electronic design automation (EDA) flow is discussed. The KeyRing microarchitecture is derived from the AnARM, a low-power self-timed ARM processor based on ad hoc design principles. First, the unorthodox design style and circuit structures are revisited. A theoretical model that can support the design of generic circuits and the elaboration of EDA methods is then presented. Also addressed are the compatibility issues between KeyRing circuits and timing-driven EDA flows. The proposed method leverages relative timing constraints to translate the timing relations in a KeyRing circuit into a set of timing constraints that enable timing-driven synthesis and static timing analysis. Finally, two 32-bit RISC-V processors are presented; called KeyV and based on KeyRing microarchitectures, they are synthesized in a 65 nm technology using the proposed EDA flow. Postsynthesis results demonstrate the effectiveness of the design methodology and allow comparisons with a synchronous alternative called SynV. Performance and power consumption evaluations show that KeyV has a power efficiency that lies between SynV with clock-gating and SynV without clock-gating.

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